Dungeons and Dalliances

Without further delay, they rushed in for the final battle.

Natalie sent out a prayer of thanks that Malice held off on her signature howl, as she had promised. They needed as much of an advantage as they could get.

With how many goblins were in the camp, Natalie didn't make it far before the first green-skinned creature spotted them, froze, and shrieked out a warning. Awareness of the ambush rippled through the creatures, all turning to face them. But those free seconds were crucial—easily worth several kills.

Havoc erupted through the camp, and Natalie took satisfaction that they were performing the ambush this time. And the advantage of surprise couldn't be overstated. Before their enemies became aware of them, Jordan had slid a dagger into a throat, Sofia skewered one through the chest, and Ana summoned two giant shadow limbs to crush two, three, then four of the weaker monsters deeper into the camp. Natalie even managed to catch one on her way to the boss, a half-effort swing that sent the creature flying—if not dead, then at least crippled.

As enjoyable as those potent first strikes were, though, when the biggest goblin stood and turned toward her, its veins glowing golden in a familiar way, Natalie couldn't stop a small thrill of intimidation from going through her. The monster had been sitting and eating, hunched over, so she hadn't been able to accurately gauge its size. Now she could.

Goblin. This thing wasn't a goblin. Goblins were small, wiry monsters with stringy muscles and sharp bones barely contained within leathery skin. This one was nearly as tall as her and built heavier than even the bulkiest fighters at Tenet. The glowing veins snaking across its muscles only further set it apart. If Natalie hadn't known it was a goblin distorted by Greed, she'd have assumed it was something else entirely. A short ogre, maybe.

No longer needing to worry about alerting the creature, Natalie [Inspected] it.

[Goblin Chieftain - Lv. 4]

Level four. The Raid Leader had been level three. Seeing how Natalie was three herself, and the rest of her team two, this was going to be a hell of a fight.

By the time Natalie arrived at the boss to slam her hammer down in a probing first blow, the goblin camp was in an uproar. The green-skinned creatures screeched and screamed as they ran toward their targets of choice. A portion came for her, Malice, and Jordan, but the bulk went for Ana's group. Probably because of the sheer damage those shadow manifestations were doing. Natalie's armor had a taunting effect, but massive damage was its own innate sort of taunt. Plus, maybe the majority had silently agreed to let the chieftain handle Natalie's subgroup. Maybe they thought it didn't need their help.

That theory was shortly substantiated. Her hammer slammed down toward the Chieftain's head, Natalie having wound up a running swing on the way over.

And the chieftain slapped it away.

Natalie went careening sideways as her bulky weapon's momentum was redirected. It was shock more than anything that had her fumbling her recovery.

A goblin had slapped a fully charged attack of hers away with its bare hands? They'd already decided that this thing must be a strength-based monster and a higher level than the Raid Leader to boot, but that was just absurd.

While she was getting control of her weapon, Malice arrived. The wolfgirl sidestepped a forward kick from the chieftain, then dodged a follow-up grapple to deliver a hard punch into the chieftain's side, followed by a second and third. Natalie knew first-hand that Malice's blows had serious power behind them, but the chieftain didn't even flinch. She was forced to jump backward as a backhand swipe passed through where she'd just been standing.

Malice retreated, briefly, though she was grinning wide, eyes showing bloodlust. "This one's gonna be hard," she called to Natalie. "But he's big and slow. Take our time. Bleed him out."

Unfortunately, there wasn't just the chieftain to worry about. After that first exchange, the goblins throughout the camp had finished closing in on their respective targets. Natalie swatted away one with a low sweep of her hammer, then twisted out of reach from a dagger slash. She retaliated with a kick, catching the goblin square in the chest and cracking ribs. She would have finished it with a downward swing, but the chieftain's attention had turned to her. She was forced to scramble back, its fingers grazing her shoulder as it barely missed a grapple.

The huge beast was panting and wild-eyed, breaths coming in huge gasps. Not in the way of exhaustion, though. Rather, like an enraged bull, maybe. Or pure excitement.

Natalie held the chieftain's attention while Jordan and Malice dealt with their own goblins. She had experience fighting martial artists, though she questioned whether that was a valid identifier, here. Yes, the chieftain punched, kicked, tackled, and used its body as a weapon, but there was none of Malice's grace in the movements. Only pure power.

But so much power. Natalie was forced onto the defensive, dodging and staying out of reach, and in the two instances she could sneak in an attack of her own, her hammer was batted away with contemptuous ease. That nearly broke her morale outright. Her whole thing was being able to overpower her enemies, and here she was, fully charged swings being ignored. Just how grossly outmatched was she?

She got her answer in the next moment. Her third attack was interrupted not by being smacked away or blocked by a forearm, but instead by being caught. The chieftain grabbed the heavy metal block of her hammer with two hands and wrenched. Natalie stumbled, watching in horror as the chieftain shifted his weight, readying a kick.

She was forced to abandon [Valentine]. Letting go, she flung herself backward, narrowly avoiding a blow that surely would have shattered her ribcage, if not killed her outright.

Then the chieftain did something she hadn't predicted. It threw her hammer at her. [Valentine], massive warhammer or not, flew through the air with the ease of a skipping stone, and while Natalie tried to dodge, she was off-foot from the exchange: not just being wrenched forward but then desperately dodging away from its kick.

She managed to get half out of the way. The metal block of her own hammer caught her on the shoulder. She spun twice before finding herself face-down in the dirt. Dazed, she forced herself up. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Malice had forced the chieftain's attention back to her. And thank the heavens she had, because grounded as she'd been, and considering the creature's ridiculous strength, Natalie's life might have been at its mercy.

She scrambled over to her hammer, ignoring the searing pain in her shoulder. Even that glancing blow might have dislocated something. She rolled the joint, deciding it was still functional.

As she stood, she took in the rest of the battlefield. Sofia, Liz, and Ana had cut their way through the majority of the goblins, though there were still plenty left, which Sofia was occupying as Ana's magic tore through them. It would be another half-minute or so before the other half of their team could join against the real threat, which was an eternity in these sorts of fights.

Natalie faced back to the chieftain, pulling her hammer up. Malice weaved between attacks, but while the chieftain was slow and lumbering relative to its absurd strength, that didn't mean it was slow: Malice was hard-pressed to fend away its attention. Especially when it didn't need to dodge her in return: it ate her attacks easily, and each punch or kick risked her being grabbed and crushed in retaliation. Jordan fared better, being a stealth-and-speed class, dodging in and out of the engagement while Malice occupied the beast. But even Jordan's dagger only drew thin red lines against tough, reinforced skin.

Natalie made a decision. In most fights, she didn't use [Empower], because doing so consumed a valuable, non-regenerative resource that should be prioritized for her permanent advancement.

But this was obviously going to be an all-out fight. Life or death. It was time to spend resources liberally.